What We Read Today 16 March 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

• The Most Dishonest Number in the World: LIBOR (William K. Black, New Economic Perspectives) William K. Black contributes to Global Economic Intersection. Don’t miss this one. It is direct to the point and much shorter than many of Bill’s articles.

• Avoiding Cultural_Auto_Immune_Social_Diseases (Roger Erickson, Mike Norman Economics) Roger Erickson is a contributor to Global Economic Intersection. Quoting Tony Benn (after WW II): “If you can have full employment killing Germans why can’t you have it doing socially useful activities?“

• Entering a Hospital and On Medicare? The One Question You Must Always Ask (Joel Hirschhorn, OpEd News) Hat tip to Rodger Malcolm Mitchell, Monetary Sovereignty.

• Shifting foundations threaten to undermine China’s cities (Harold Thinault, The Guardian) Hat tip to Sig Silber. Fifty fast growing cities in China are suffering land subsidence due to construction on unstable soils (rather than bedrock) and excessive extraction of groundwater. Shanghai has sunk 2.6 meters (8.4 feet) over the past 93 years. Shanghai has recently started injecting 60,000 tonnes of water a year into its acquifers in an attempt to slow, arrest or reverse the subsidence. Smaller subsidence is reported in some non-urban areas.

There are 13 articles discussed ‘behind the wall’ today, including one discussion of the dramatic increase in Fed reverse repo actions which is actually a short article.